Nighttime in the Jungle: Bioluminescent Mushrooms

Nighttime in the Jungle

Assisting a researcher based at Danau Girang Field Centre along the lower Kinabatangan River (Sabah, Borneo), we set out on a nighttime frog survey. We came across many amazing frog species, a few of which you can check out in our blog post here.

Heading to the frog transect at dusk

Walking along the forest path

Getting back on the boat after our nighttime adventures

Whilst walking along the track, we noticed a very faint glow coming from an area on the forest floor. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that we had stumbled across a patch of bioluminescent fungi!

Click to zoom in

Bioluminescence in Fungi

There are around 80 species of bioluminescent fungi that are currently known worldwide. These bioluminescent fungi emit a greenish light at a wavelength of 520–530 nm. Most are found in temperate and tropical climates. All but one species are members of the order Agaricales. These are the gilled mushrooms that most of us are familiar with.

The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of fungi bioluminescence are still not perfectly understood, but you can check out these links for information:

How?

A 2017 journal article from Science Advances looking at the mechanism of fungi bioluminescence. Click the image to visit the article.

Why?

A video from National Geographic Magazine in which a researcher in Brazil attempts to find out why fungi glow in the dark. Click the image to view the video.